A salacious tabloid newspaper with a conservative owner and a history of unscrupulous methods finds itself under the microscope, forcing a national reckoning about the intersection of journalism, politics, celebrity and sleaze.

That's what happened seven years ago at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World in London. The paper folded in 2012 amid a phone hacking scandal that turned U.K.'s media and political establishment upside down.

But it could also describe – minus the phone hacking – the controversy engulfing the National Enquirer.

The Florida-based supermarket tabloid has mixed celebrity gossip, true crime and conspiracy theories for decades. But its association with President Donald Trump – and its new attacks on Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos – is shining a harsh light on the underbelly of tabloid journalism.

And now a legal fight with the world’s richest person could prove devastating for a company that has faced financial challenges, including substantial debt and the loss of revenue from print sales confronting even mainstream newspapers.

A copy of the National Enquirer is seen at a newspaper vendor's shop on Third Avenue in midtown New York City Friday alongside other titles by AMI, the tabloid publisher at the heart of growing scandals involving President Donald Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.(Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY, AFP/Getty Images)

Bezos announced Jan. 9 that he and his wife were divorcing after 25 years of marriage. Later that same day, the National Enquirer published photos and texts showing Bezos involved in an extramarital affair with a former news anchor.

Bezos hired a private investigator to discover how the National Enquirer got his texts.

That wasn't the end of it.

In emails released by Bezos Thursday, the National Enquirer told him that it had even more compromising photos, including what it euphemistically described as a "below-the-belt selfie." It threatened to publish the photos unless Bezos publicly stated that he has "no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces."

The company could have criminal or civil liability if it was complicit in illegally obtaining the photos, said Michael Conway, a lawyer who has represented media organizations such as the New York Times and ABC, and now teaches at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

“The key question here is, did American Media in any way encourage, facilitate or otherwise make an effort to get Bezos’ pictures and emails, which we don’t know,” Conway said. “If they did, then they’re complicit in the crime and the First Amendment doesn’t protect them from publishing it.”

But that's not the only question. Bezos alleged that AMI's threats to publish more embarrassing photos amounted to extortion.

AMI's lawyers proposed a confidential agreement to settle a legal claim. Such non-disclosure agreements are common, said Harry Sandick, an attorney who formerly served as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. But "you aren't allowed to threaten to harm someone or their reputation in exchange for something."

Last year, AMI agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors there who were investigating Trump's payments to women through long-time personal attorney Michael Cohen, who is also cooperating. As part of that agreement, AMI agreed not to commit further crimes, heightening the stakes for the company if it's found to have acted illegally in the Bezos affair.

The National Enquirer is only one of AMI's brands, but is its oldest and most iconic.

The Associated Press reported that the National Enquirer's circulation fell 18 percent last year, to 265,000 weekly. But that's just a small fraction of the 2.3 million circulation AMI claims.

Other publications include lifestyle titles like Men's Journal and Muscle and Fitness. along with celebrity fare like In Touch, Us Weekly and Soap Opera Digest.

Last year, it bought up even more publications to form a near-monopoly of the supermarket aisle. Those included Life & Style, Closer. J-14 and GirlsWorld.

The company is privately owned and not traded publicly, so its financials are closely held. But just last month, the company announced that it refinanced $460 million worth of debt.

For example, Gawker declared bankruptcy in 2016 after former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan sued the online gossip site for invasion of privacy after it published a sex tape. Hogan won a $115 million judgment.

Murdoch, whose media empire includes the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, closed the News of the World in 2011 after multiple newspapers staffers were arrested in the phone hacking scandal. While the newspaper illegally obtained voicemails of athletes, celebrities and thousands of others, it was the hacking of a 13-year-old murder victim that most inflamed the British public.

The front page of the Jan. 28, 2019, edition of the National Enquirer featuring a story about Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos' divorce.(Photo: AP)

The Bezos battle is just one of the controversies surrounding the tabloid group:

► In the run-up to the 2016 election, the National Enquirer published a string of dubious stories about Hillary Clinton's health, sex life and involvement in various conspiracies.

► AMI admitted paying a $150,000 to former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal as part of a "catch-and-kill" operation to silence her claims to have had an affair with Trump.

AMI Chairman and CEO David Pecker has close ties to Trump, and the New York Times and the Associated Press have reported that Pecker has used that access to leverage business deals in Saudi Arabia. Bezos said it's the Saudi connection that "seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve."

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Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos holds a copy of "Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies" by Douglas Hofstadter -- the first book sold online by Amazon.com -- as he poses for photos at the company's headquarters in Seattle on June 17, 2005. Amazon launched at the dawn of the Web as an online bookseller on July 16, 1995. Ted S. Warren, AP

(L-R) Washington Post reporter and former Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie Bezos participate in the opening ceremony of the newspaper's new location Jan. 28, 2016 in Washington, DC. Kerry and Bezos worked to help free Rezaian after he spent 18 months in an Iranian prison after he was jailed and tried in secret for espionage. Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

Jeff Bezos (R) speaks with Leonard Garfield, Executive Director of the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), during a launch event for the Bezos Center for Innovation at MOHAI on October 11, 2013 in Seattle, Washington. Supported by Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, the center aims to highlight the history and future of innovation in the Puget Sound region. David Ryder, Getty Images

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, demonstrates a cordless power drill and reciprocating saw as he wears a Western-style hard hat at a New York news conference on Nov. 9, 1999. Amazon added home improvement goods, computer software and a wider array of video games to its Web site in a move by the Internet merchant to build itself into an online superstore. Richard Drew, AP

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Inc., appears on the cover of the December 1999, issue of Time magazine as the magazine's "Person of the Year" for 1999. "There were two great themes of the year, online shopping and dot-com mania, and the minute we thought of Bezos it was obvious that he embodied both" the magazine wrote. Courtesy of TIME Magazine via newsmakers

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, is shown during an interview at the online retail company's offices overlooking the Seattle skyline on May 2, 2001. Despite company layoffs and a bruising stock plunge, Bezos said he believed in Amazon more than ever. Andy Rogers, Associated Press

Jeff Bezos, founder, CEO and chairman of Amazon.com, holds the company's first sign, quickly spray-painted prior to an interview with a Japanese television station in 1995, at Amazon's Seattle headquarters on March 11, 2004. Andy Rogers, AP

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, introduces the Kindle at a news conference on Nov. 19, 2007 in New York. The $399 electronic book device allowed downloads of more than 90,000 book titles, blogs, magazines and newspapers. Mark Lennihan, AP

A visitor views the front page of the Washington Post, displayed outside the Newseum in Washington on Aug. 6, 2013, a day after it was announced that Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million. Evan Vucci, AP

This photo released by Amazon on Dec. 1, 2013 shows a flying "octocopter" mini-drone that would be used to fly small packages to consumers. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that his company was looking to the future with plans to use mini-drones to deliver small packages. Amazon via AFP/Getty Images

Jeff Bezos, right,, the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon, shake hands next to a model of the new BE-4 rocket engine during a news conference with Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance, at the National Press Club on Sept. 17, 2014, in Washington. United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin announced that they have entered into an agreement to jointly fund development of the BE-4 rocket engine. Win McNamee, Getty Images

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, left, unveils the new Blue Origin rocket, as Florida Gov. Rick Scott applauds, during a news conference at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sept. 15, 2015. Bezos announced a $200 million investment to build the rockets and capsules in the state and launch them using the historic Launch Complex 36. Phelan M. Ebenhack, AP

Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post and founder of Amazon, delivers remarks at an event celebrating the new location of "The Washington Post" on Jan. 28, 2016. "Forbes" reports on July 29, 2016 that Jeff Bezos, is the world's third-richest person. Michael Reynolds, European Pressphoto Agency